Illumina is a global life sciences company with the mission of transforming human health through the power of genomics. Research organizations have generated more than 90% of the world’s sequencing data using Illumina technology to tackle global issues that include cancer research, prenatal screening, agriculture, and forensics. The company has 6,000 employees in 26 countries, and it looks for top candidates to fill its open positions.

Competing for top talent on a global scale can be difficult, which is why the human resources department strives to help Illumina present itself in the best light possible with smooth, convenient, and technically savvy recruiting and onboarding processes. The company recently started a digital document transformation in its HR department by implementing Workday Onboarding with Adobe Sign, the electronic signature solution within Adobe Document Cloud. Taking advantage of the full integration between the two solutions, Illumina gains a personalized, trackable, mobile-friendly electronic onboarding process.

The Illumina HR department now provides 95% of its onboarding forms and documents digitally through Workday Onboarding and Adobe Sign. Using the integration, new hires can access and sign onboarding paperwork from any device, even a smartphone. This is particularly attractive to new hires in areas of the world where the primary mode of internet access is through mobile devices. Since new hires can fill out paperwork on their own time, they can complete documents before they start and spend their first day on the job interacting with their new teams and roles.

Because it’s such a fast and easy experience, documents are returned in hours instead of weeks. The HR team also saves hours of work preparing documents for each new hire by taking advantage of automation. Working with digital documents saves more than $120,000 annually on mailing and labor costs alone, delivering a return on investment for Adobe Sign in less than a week.

“Automated processes give onboarding coordinators and recruiters much more time to work directly with new hires or job candidates,” says Hilary Dorr, Staff HRIS Analyst at Illumina, Inc. “We’re providing our talent with a deeper level of service that allows us to better attract and keep quality employees.”